The Role of Local Languages in Public Spaces: Investigating the Functions of Translanguaging in Homilies

• Main Author: Suarez, Cecilia A
• Format: text
• Published: Archīum Ateneo 2023
• Subjects: Eucharistic celebrations; Homilies; Multilingualism; Translanguaging; Translingual practices; Arts and Humanities; Catholic Studies; English Language and Literature; Literature in English, Anglophone outside British Isles and North America; Other English Language and Literature; Religion
• Online Access: https://archium.ateneo.edu/english-faculty-pubs/221; https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-8589-0_9
• Institution: Ateneo De Manila University

Translanguaging is a natural and common linguistic behavior among multilingual speakers. However, such behavior is not necessarily encouraged in particular domains such as the school despite studies that show that there are benefits in using translanguaging as a pedagogical tool (see for example Baker & Lewis, 2015; De Los Reyes, 2018). This observation is true in most classroom situations in the Philippines and the rest of the globe where learners are multilingual. Truth be told, because of studies that support the value of the multilingual speakers’ linguistic resources, it might be crucial to investigate as well how translanguaging is employed in social domains other than the classroom. As a predominantly Catholic country, it is noteworthy to explore how translanguaging is employed in the religious domain in the Philippines. Do multilingual Catholic priests employ translanguaging during eucharistic celebrations, specifically in the homilies delivered in multilingual communities? Why do they shift from one language to another? When do they use English? When do they use the local language/s? These are the questions that this paper sought to address using a case study method, complemented with discourse analysis and a semi-structured interview.